Second Drink: Gossip

Office Ladies

Jenna Fisher and Angela Kinsey revisit the Season 6 premiere episode 'Gossip,' breaking down the chaos of Michael Scott's rumor-spreading. T

Key takeaways

• The 'Parkour' scene was not choreographed; actors were simply instructed to move through the office and mess up the room.
• A video used for Jim's computer screen was a licensed clip from an amateur UCLA student filmmaker.

Main topics

• The Office episode 'Gossip'
• Parkour choreography and stunts

Notable quotes

Don't vaccinate it.

Conclusion

A nostalgic deep dive that connects technical production trivia with t

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:02) Hello, Speaker 4 (0:02) everyone, and welcome to your second drink of gossip. Well, as you know, this episode starts with the parkour cold open, and we got this letter from Ethan C. in Littleton, Colorado. Ethan said, Jenna and Angela, first, I love y'all both so much. Thanks, Ethan. The office is such a huge part of my life and everyone knows it. I have to share something that happened to me at work and it's the only time the office has let me down. Now, I don't work in an office. I work in an amazing elementary school in Knoxville. Well, last Friday, we had our annual talent show. Now, let me preface by saying we don't have normal talent shows. Ours are like no other. They're absolutely overflowing with highlights and are wonderful students. It's honestly amazing. Here's where it gets good. We had a group of kids do comedic parkour while we played the video of Michael, Dwight, and Andy parkouring behind them. I decided to join in on the fun because why not? Oh, no. Well, let's just say I parkoured a little too hard and now I have a torn ACL. The office had me thinking I could parkour and I parkant. Anyways, I appreciate y'all so much and had to share this story. Maybe my letter can be used as a disclaimer on the second drink of gossip for those that need not parkour. Oh, Speaker 3 (1:27) my gosh. Ethan, we're so sorry, but also that sounds like something I would have jumped in and been like, I'm going to do it with the kids. You know what I did? What? Speaker 4 (1:37) You know, when Creed is talking about how he wants to do one perfect cartwheel. One perfect cartwheel. Yeah. Speaker 3 (1:45) That Speaker 4 (1:45) made me wonder if I could do a perfect cartwheel anymore. Speaker 3 (1:48) Did you do one recently? Speaker 4 (1:50) Not recently. This was like even 10 years ago in my 40s. Speaker 3 (1:54) And Speaker 4 (1:54) I threw out my shoulder. Like I got a big crick in my neck. It was a debacle. It was a tragedy. I still in my mind, I can imagine my body moving through space. dancing because I grew up dancing or cartwheeling or doing a dive, all these things. And I cannot. I should not. I Speaker 3 (2:15) did a cartwheel, I think, two summers ago in the front yard with the kids. How'd that go? I felt like I was in a car accident afterwards. Yeah. That's how it felt. Speaker 4 (2:26) I was trying to teach my kids how to do a somersault, and it was the worst decision I ever made. I was like, this is for the... people at the little kiddie gym who are much younger than me. Speaker 3 (2:35) And I used to do cartwheels all over the place, but I did. I sort of like, you know, that minor fender bender where you're like, oh, my neck is sore in my back. Yeah. And my arm. What's Speaker 4 (2:45) that about? I mean, it's not like I, I mean, I work out, I lift weights, I stretch. Why can't I do these things? Why can't I move my body like this anymore? Sam, can you do a cartwheel? Speaker 3 (2:56) You're Speaker 4 (2:56) younger than Speaker 3 (2:57) us. Speaker 2 (2:58) Absolutely not. Speaker 3 (3:00) No. Speaker 2 (3:00) No. Not in the slightest. I would blow both my shoulders out and my knees. Speaker 3 (3:04) Okay. You know what I did last night I was really proud of? I know, Ethan, we're getting off here on a tangent. Last night in the pool in the shallow end, I did a perfect handstand and walked across the pool. Speaker 4 (3:15) See, now water, in water, I think I can do a lot of cool shit. Can you do a handstand in the shallow end? Speaker 3 (3:23) I don't know. Well, report back. Ethan, thank you so much. I Speaker 4 (3:27) hope you're Speaker 3 (3:27) healing and on the mend. We also got a fan mail flurry. Jenna, you might remember that you did a breakdown of the things on Aaron's desk. Yes. Yeah. You thought you spotted a ski boot and a stuffed dog with a little sweater that both said J-R-O-B. Speaker 5 (3:44) The Speaker 3 (3:44) only thing you could find that matched that was a wrestling camp, which didn't make any sense. But a big thank you to Rebecca D., Greg H., Stephanie F., and Dave M., who all wrote in to say that the ski boot and sweater actually say JFBB, which stands for Jack Frost Big Boulder, a local Scranton ski resort. Well, that makes a lot more sense. It really does. Why Speaker 4 (4:08) it's on a ski boot. Speaker 3 (4:09) Yes. And I guess we've learned that Erin is a snow skiing enthusiast. But also I could see her wrestling. I Speaker 4 (4:18) know, I was going to say, I could see Erin just sort of like randomly collecting things from a sport she doesn't play because she's Erin. Speaker 3 (4:27) Yes. Speaker 4 (4:27) I don't know. Well, Jonathan A. from Los Angeles wrote in to say, hi there, hoping this gets in when y'all take a second drink of gossip. In the scene when Pam and Jim tell the whole team about the pregnancy and everyone is chiming in, Ryan says, don't vaccinate it. Haha, was that scripted or improv? Love the pod. Well, Jonathan, I love this scene. I love the scene where we're in the conference room. It's at the end of the episode and it becomes clear that Michael has spread all these rumors about people to cover up Stanley's affair. And just when Michael is about to announce to everyone what the one true thing is, Jim chimes in and he says, it's us. Pam is pregnant. And everyone has a little sidebar comment. Actually, I think we should listen to it. Okay. Speaker 2 (5:19) You Speaker 1 (5:19) told everyone Speaker 2 (5:19) I was having an affair. Okay, okay, Speaker 4 (5:22) here's the Speaker 2 (5:22) thing. There was one true rumor out there today. I didn't want everybody to know what it was. So all of you are off the hook, except for this one person. Speaker 5 (5:32) Well, then what's the one true rumor? We have Speaker 2 (5:35) a right to know. Speaker 1 (5:36) Michael, am I gay? Speaker 2 (5:39) The one true rumor... and this is going to ruin this person's life, is that... But Pam's pregnant. Speaker 3 (5:45) I knew Speaker 2 (5:45) it. I knew it. Her breasts were a tiny bit bigger. At first, I thought, oh, she has a new bra with padding. But then I thought, Pam Speaker 1 (5:55) doesn't need padding. Speaker 2 (5:58) It just didn't add up, Jim. Okay. Speaker 4 (6:00) Thank you. Congratulations. That's really pretty, you guys. Speaker 2 (6:03) Don't vaccinate it. Who's the father? Speaker 4 (6:05) Jim. Speaker 2 (6:05) How far along? Speaker 4 (6:06) Four months. Speaker 5 (6:07) Who's the OBGYN? Stop. Speaker 2 (6:09) Don't. All right. All right. You know... Speaker 2 (6:15) the nosiest group of people. Speaker 4 (6:17) I know. To answer your question, Jonathan, Ryan's line was scripted. All of those sidebar comments were scripted. I love how you guys fire them off so quickly. The scene was so fun to shoot. One of my favorite parts is when John as Jim slowly comes over. and puts his arm around Pam to sort of shield her from Kevin, who's like coming up over her shoulder from behind her to talk about her padded bras. It was very funny. Everyone's like at the top of their game in this quick little scene. I Speaker 3 (6:50) could not look at Creed when he started asking about who's your OPG wife. Speaker 4 (6:55) I know. I know. It's so funny. Speaker 3 (6:57) All right, everybody. Well, please enjoy your second drink of gossip. Speaker 4 (7:06) I'm Jenna Fisher. And I'm Angela Kinsey. We were on The Office together. And we're best friends. And now we're doing the Ultimate Office Rewatch Podcast just for you. Each Speaker 3 (7:14) week, we will break down an episode of The Office and give exclusive behind-the-scenes stories that only two people who were there can tell you. We're Speaker 4 (7:22) The Office Ladies. Speaker 4 (7:27) Hi, you guys. I hope you're having a great day. Today, we're going to talk about gossip. It is the season premiere of season six. Speaker 3 (7:36) Holy moly, we're at season six. Yeah. Speaker 4 (7:39) What? We're going down the other side of the mountain. We hit the peak at 100 episodes. Now we've got 100 more. Downhill all the way. No, that's not how I meant that metaphor to be. I just meant we're halfway to our destination. We're Speaker 3 (7:53) halfway there. Speaker 3 (7:57) No. Oh, now I heard it. No. Okay. I'm liking Speaker 4 (8:02) this. Listen, this episode was written by Paul Lieberstein and directed by Paul Lieberstein, and here is your summary. When Michael regretfully reveals that Stanley is having an affair, he sets out to cover his tracks by spreading a bunch of lies about basically everyone in the office. But what he doesn't realize is that one of his lies turns out to be true. Before we get started on the fast facts, Angela. We have some gossip. Or maybe it's not gossip. Maybe it's true. Maybe Speaker 3 (8:37) it's the one true thing. Speaker 4 (8:39) Okay, it's totally real. It's not gossip. Guys, our book cover for Office BFFs is out. It is out. It's official. Right now. You can see it. Speaker 3 (8:49) It's so cute. Can I say that? I can say it's cute, right? I mean, I hope we think it's cute. We picked it. We picked it. You guys, I think you know this about me by now. I love a photo booth. This is true. If I walk by a photo booth with you, you're going in it. it with me. And Jenna and I went into a photo booth at the mall one day. This Speaker 4 (9:07) was years ago. Years ago. Ten years ago, maybe? Speaker 3 (9:10) Was it more than that? Maybe more. I saved the photo strip from this mall photo booth. It's been on my bulletin board for a number of years. And it's the photo of our book cover. I'm Speaker 4 (9:22) realizing now that we chose a 15-year-old photo for our book cover, probably because we didn't want to pose for a photo. But actually, the point of it was to show the depth of our friendship, the length of our friendship, because so much of the book is going over the growth and history of our friendship. It Speaker 3 (9:42) is, you guys. It is our life through The Office and beyond, Best Friendship Journal, with the backdrop of this amazing show and just a lot of our stories that we can't get into as much in the podcast are in the book. Speaker 4 (9:56) Also in the book. are 400 of our personal photos. Can Speaker 3 (10:01) I just take a minute? 400, that was so hard to narrow down because we had like 2000 and they were like, you guys, your book cannot have 2000 pictures. They told us we had to narrow it down to like 200. Jen and I were like, we got it to 400. Yeah. Can we call it even? Speaker 4 (10:17) So these are truly our personal photos taken on our personal cameras. Even back then when you had the old timey cameras with film. Yes. And you had to go to the mall to the kiosk. Yep. Yeah. Those pictures all the way back to the pilot. Yeah. Of the office. The book is available for pre-order now. We would appreciate it if you pre-order it because it makes us look really good to our publishers. I Speaker 3 (10:42) wish you could see Jenna's face right now because she's doing that really cute face that your kids do when they really want something at Christmas. Speaker 4 (10:48) So yeah, pre-order would be amazing. Thank you in advance. I know the Midwesterner in me gets very shy asking people to do things like that, but... You can find a link to order the book on officeladies.com. We will, of course, put it on all of our social media platforms as well. Yes. So check out the cover. Speaker 3 (11:08) Office BFFs, check it out. We can't wait to share this book with you. We're super excited to take it out in the world and meet you all and sign copies and do the Speaker 4 (11:17) whole shebang. And I will wear a fake flower. You mark my words. I don't doubt it for a second. Speaker 3 (11:23) Should we get back to the episode? Speaker 4 (11:25) Let's do it. Fast fact number one, Gossip, as I said, was our season six premiere episode. It aired on September 17th, 2009, and it was seen by 8.21 million viewers. Speaker 3 (11:40) Wow, Speaker 4 (11:40) that seems like a lot. It was a lot. However, our viewership was down 18 % compared to the season five premiere of Weight Loss. Oh. So I guess we took a little dip here with our premiere episode. But The Office was still the leading comedy on NBC at the time. And we were sort of the anchor for the other shows. I found an old promo. Oh, I love an old promo. That was kicking off the whole, like, fall season. And The Office was very prominent in it. Will you guys play it? Speaker 1 (12:19) Here's why summer being over is a good thing. Yeah! Because now we get new comedy on NBC Thursday. That's cool. We'll finally confirm the big baby news on The Office. GP had a stick. Speaker 2 (12:29) I did. But it was inconclusive. Speaker 1 (12:31) And we welcome back Parks and Rec, 30 Rock, and SNL in primetime. Plus the new comedy Community. A perfect fit on Thursdays. You ready, amigo? See, and it always ends with J. All your favorite comedies are back on One Great Night, Thursday, September 17th on NBC. Speaker 3 (12:49) Oh man, I miss those promo guys. Those guys, they crack me up every time. They're like, all your favorites in one place. Speaker 4 (12:57) Yeah, they kind of do a breathy thing. Well, when I saw this promo, it made me think of something. What? Well, they say summer is over. You know, we're back. Yeah, yeah. Why did the documentary film Speaker 3 (13:10) crew stop filming us every summer? Speaker 4 (13:13) There's always a time jump. Speaker 3 (13:15) Lady, because they're a fakey film Speaker 4 (13:17) crew. I mean, Speaker 3 (13:18) why Speaker 4 (13:19) not film us in the summer? We jump ahead in time. It's been several weeks since Pam and Jim got their pregnancy news. And now, you know, she's quite far along by this episode. I just, I'm like, why? Why did they, why do they take a break? Speaker 4 (13:35) All right, fast fact number two. Gossip was the first episode to feature Ellie Kemper as a full cast member. It was also the first episode of The Office to air since the release of The Hangover, starring our very own Ed Helms. This movie was a huge hit. Yeah. Huge. If you don't know it, it's the story of these three guys who go to Vegas for a bachelor party, but they lose the groom. And they wake up from this night. of intense partying. The groom is gone, and they have to retrace their steps and try to find him. And Ed was one of the stars. This movie made $469 million at the box office. Speaker 3 (14:21) What the heck? Speaker 4 (14:22) Bradley Cooper, Zach Galifianakis, Ed Helms became superstars. Ken Jeong was in this movie, superstar. I Speaker 3 (14:31) went to the Hangover DVD release party. In Las Vegas with Rachel Harris. You didn't. I did. Because Speaker 4 (14:40) Rachel Harris was in the movie. Speaker 3 (14:42) Yes, she played Ed's girlfriend, the sort of persnickety girlfriend. I went as her plus one. And lady, guess where this big party was in Vegas? Speaker 4 (14:51) I don't know. Caesar's Palace. Oh, of course, because the movie. Speaker 3 (14:56) Club Pure. I found some red carpet photos. No, you did not. From this evening. And I cannot wait to show them to you. Who? Speaker 4 (15:07) Angela! Angela has on boots that go up to her knees. Black leather go-go boots. Oh, wow. Speaker 3 (15:15) Look at you. I was in Vegas. You gotta, like, bring out your boots for Vegas. So, yeah, I went to the Hangover DVD release party. Speaker 4 (15:24) Well, we want you guys to know that Ed was a horrible person after he became a big star. No, he wasn't. He was just... Poor Ed. He never changed. What a sweet guy. We were so happy for this big success. Yeah. He went on to make more hangover movies and more movies. And develop TV Speaker 3 (15:46) series, but he's still the same old Ed. He Speaker 4 (15:48) is. Fast fact number three, I have titled, What Did You Do Over That Summer? Speaker 3 (15:54) Hmm. Speaker 4 (15:55) Because I was like, this was like a life-altering summer for Ed Helms. It was a life-altering summer for Ellie Kemper because she was made a regular on this TV show. I realized I had a life-altering summer as well. What'd you do? Two very big things happened to me over this summer. The first thing that happened was that my beloved... Andi Cat. You know, the one that was in the People magazine shoot with me. The Speaker 3 (16:19) one that you had a voice for. You would talk as Andi. Yes, I would. We haven't shared about that. Oh, Speaker 4 (16:25) sorry. Speaker 3 (16:25) We haven't. Speaker 4 (16:27) That's okay. Everyone who knows me going all the way back to college knows I had a little voice for Andi. I'll have you know, Sunny has one as well. Oh, yeah. All of your animals have their Speaker 3 (16:37) own unique accents. They do. Speaker 4 (16:40) Because by the way, I think... Andy's name was Andy, but he pronounced it Andi. Andi, yeah. That was a choice he made. Right. So anyway, sweet Andi passed away over this summer. He was almost 17 years old, but that was a big thing for me because he had traveled with me all the way from Kirksville, Missouri, all the way to Hollywood. And he was my love. I know. Really and truly. So also that summer though, Angela, Lee proposed to me. Oh my gosh, that's right. Yes. We were in Paris. Oh, Paris. Paris, Paris. And he proposed by the river. We were having a little picnic with wine and cheese. Speaker 2 (17:23) We were so Parisian. Is this a Speaker 4 (17:24) rom-com? Well, then it got even more rom-com because Lee and I were like, oh, maybe we keep the engagement to ourselves for a little while. I mean, we told all of our close friends. We told our family. But we thought like maybe we don't go public with the news for a while. I don't know. Yeah, yeah. Just keeping things private. Well, someone in this little Parisian restaurant overheard us telling another couple that we had gotten engaged. So while we're flying back home, it hit the news. I mean, talk about gossip. Oh my gosh, this is so on theme. You were gossip. All the gossip magazines. We land to like this crazy amount of emails and texts. We were on like entertainment tonight. Oh my gosh. My extended family is calling me. It was so bonkers. But yeah, it was a big summer. Well, my story isn't that great. Oh no, I'm so sorry if I like. I was Speaker 3 (18:27) like. Speaker 4 (18:28) We're going to share what we did Speaker 3 (18:30) that summer. And I guess I didn't give it the context. You didn't tell me what you were going to share. Well, oddly enough, I also spent part of